Hartford is usually the demarkation line of sports allegiances. People who live south and/or west of it are usually NY sports fans, those who are north and/or east of it are usually Boston fans. John Quick, Max Pacioretty, and Chris Drury all grew up in the part of CT that's more or less an NYC suburb and all grew up as Rangers fans. I think part of the Whalers problem was the TV deal -- if you lived close to NYC as they did/I do, you got Rangers/Islanders/Devils broadcasts and not Whalers ones. Only recently have I started getting NESN for the Boston teams too. If there was ever a team in Hartford, they'd need to figure out their broadcasting situation.

Easy, Comcast New England, they were on that channel years ago when it was something else.